'Bachelor' Alum Taylor Nolan Could Be Investigated Over Multiple Complaints Amid Racism Controversy
Former Bachelor contestant Taylor Nolan could be investigated by the Washington State Department [...]
Former Bachelor contestant Taylor Nolan could be investigated by the Washington State Department of Health after they received "multiple" complaints about her controversial tweets. Earlier this week, Nolan published a video apologizing for recently unearthed tweets from 2011 and 2012 that are homophobic, racist, and Anti-Semitic. The 27-year-old, who is biracial, is a licensed health counselor in Washington.
"This week, we've received multiple complaints against Nolan in connection with the issues you mentioned," Washington DOH spokesperson Gordon MacCracken told Page Six on Friday. "Those complaints are under assessment. Patient safety is our top priority, and we take all complaints seriously."
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The tweets resurfaced while the Bachelor franchise faces renewed scrutiny because of host Chris Harrison's response to contestant Rachel Kirkconnel's own racism controversy. In Nolan's tweets, she wrote racist and offensive messages about the LGBTQ and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. She also published a shocking tweet in May 2012 about mental health. "#WeWontWorkIf I have ever diagnosed you with a personality disorder," she wrote, later adding in a follow-up tweet, "Treatment: SUICIDE."
Over the past week, Nolan has shared several posts on Instagram apologizing, beginning with a 30-minute video on Feb. 28. "My tweets from ten years ago are s—ty, they suck, they were wrong, and are hurtful," Nolan wrote in the caption. "I want to be clear that they don't take away from the work I do today, they are literally how I got here to doing this work." She went on to say that she never deleted the tweets because "they've been a part of my journey since way before going [on] The Bachelor." In her video, she suggested the only reason why the tweets were being talked about now was that "I have upset the white supremacy repeatedly."
"I sincerely hope that you do see all the work that I do today," Nolan wrote at the end of her caption. "I hope that seeing these tweets lets you know that I've done the work. That I continuously do the work ... I'm not going to come on here and be like, 'I'm going to do better.' I've been doing better. Not just because I want to be performative, not just because I feel bad because it's the right thing to do."
In a follow-up post, Nolan said her response was a "reaction, not an apology" and said she owed everyone an apology. "There is no question of defending that every word of my old tweets are harmful, wrong, triggering, and incredibly upsetting to the communities I identify with and that I support. I'm so sorry to the folks that were triggered and re-traumatized by seeing the hurtful words from my past."
Before her own racism controversy began, Nolan spoke out strongly against ABC's response to the situation with Harrison and Kirkconnell. Although Kirkconnell apologized for her offensive social media activity, Harrison came to her defense during an interview with Rachel Lindsay last month. Harrison agreed to step down temporarily from the franchise, but that only meant he would not host the live finale for Matt James' season.